Bedford Cup Campaign Opens With a 9-1 Victory Over Raunds Town

Match Report

8 Sept

Real Bedford kicked off their cup campaign with a devastating performance, beating Raunds Town 9-1 under the lights of McMullen Park.

[Note: we are not streaming cup games this season, so we cannot show highlights from cup games].

Real Bedford kicked off their cup campaign on Tuesday in the Gladwish Challenge Trophy at McMullen Park. Following a 100% start to the league season, manager Rob Sinclair picked a strong starting lineup, proving too much for Raunds Town.

A pre-match shower made for a fast opening to the game, and Real was 3 - 0 up within 12 minutes. Tom Hitchcock opened the scoring by heading into an empty net after a shot from Dan Walker came back off the crossbar. Six minutes later, Ben McGrath smashed a rebound into the back of the net, and Dan Walker found the net in the 12th minute to add his name to the scoresheet.

As it looked like the floodgates would open, Raunds adjusted to the game's pace and managed to hold Bedford back until the 35th minute, when Dan Walker made it 4 - 0.

Second Half

Just four minutes into the second half, Raunds got onto the score sheet. Still, any thoughts of a comeback were quickly squashed when Real Bedford’s newest signing, Eddie Corbit, capped off another man of the match performance with a brilliantly worked goal.

With Bedford comfortably in control of the game, manager Rob Sinclair made three changes, bringing on Matthew Clifford, James Duckett and Flynn Baker-Bond.

Flynn opened his account for Bedford with an excellent long-range shot buried in the bottom corner of the box.

Captain Luke Knight received a red card in the 83rd minute. Still, this reduction to 10 men would not slow Bedford down, and they would score three more goals in the last five minutes with Kevin Owusu, a second from Tom Hitchcock and a goal for returning striker Jamie Sylvester making it nine for the home side.

Saturday (10th September 2022) sees Real Bedford return to Amersham to play London Tigers again in the league Cup.

RBFC: Corbit (Baker-Bond, 69’), Coyle (McLeod-Bentley 75’), Culley (Wood 97’), J. Duckett (Clifford 69’), Hitchcock, Knight, McGrath, McGregor, Owusu, Uttridge, Walker (Sylvester 90’).